


Grossly Incandescent

by mundean



Category: Hollow Knight (Video Game)
Genre: Gen, POV First Person
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-31
Updated: 2018-05-31
Packaged: 2019-05-16 12:53:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 472
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14811750
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mundean/pseuds/mundean
Summary: Hornet waxes lyrical about her fallen kingdom.





	Grossly Incandescent

**Author's Note:**

> I wanted to experiment with writing something in first person, and Hornet's self-imposed role within the narrative of Hollow Knight always intrigued me, so here we are.

Harmony.

That is what it — that ancient, eldritch Radiance — promises.

Salvation from this ignoble squalor of the Pale King's realm. It whispers into the ears of every bug in Hallownest, tempting them with the promise of unity and peace. That Light blinds and consumes indiscriminately and without remorse. Even for an oddity borne of void or of wyrm, the Light makes room in its smothering embrace.

So many have fallen to its temptations. Husks who I knew, respected — even feared— would grow enamored with that Light, one by one. Some sought strength. Others, knowledge. Others simply wished for the ease of an existence drowned in oblivion.

But none of them knew what truly awaited them.

I cannot blame them. Even I have been tempted by the allure of the Radiance. To take that infection into me, absorb its power... An existence mired in Light would certainly have been easier. Freedom from the duties I have burdened myself with, from the knowledge I possess. How fanciful.

Even now, it beckons me with its promise of glorious rapture. That sickly warmth, lurking in every crevice of this kingdom, impatiently awaiting the day that I slip up to corrupt my pallor. It would only require a moment’s blunder for that Light to do its worst.

For so long, I have resisted the urge to surrender myself to it, to regress to those savage, mindless ways, as so many around me have done. I feel true sorrow for anyone trapped in such an existence. All manner of free will or thought — of being — washed away with the Light. Now, they all can do naught but wander mindlessly across these ruined lands, minds only occupied with the incessant thrum of the Light. There is nothing I can do for these poor souls now — the infection is much too far gone.

Instead, I serve as a test for the vessels who would challenge that divine Radiance. I stand diligently awaiting the birth of a savior, for a worthy vessel to ascend from that shadowy abyss unscathed. One to usurp the Hollow Knight, to renew the cycle and contain the Radiance — or perhaps, even, to banish its sickly light once and for all. But as of now, that is naught but wishful thinking. It has been years since the first Hollow Knight emerged, and none since have offered nearly as much promise. But still, I wait.

I will see this kingdom saved.

I wish it were within my abilities to do so. For one of royal lineage to be so powerless to protect my own kingdom is a fate equal parts ironic and tragic. But I lack the ability to contain that Light, that crucial emptiness that all vessels share. So for now, I must wait. Wait until a savior arises.

If only I could be so grossly incandescent...


End file.
